Across the Danube River region, communities are facing increasingly complex and interconnected challenges – from demographic change and growing pressure on care systems, to climate risks and the need for more resilient, sustainable living environments. Such challenges require more than isolated solutions – coordinated action, knowledge exchange and governance models that function across borders are needed.
In this context, the Danube Region Programme supports innovative transnational initiatives that tackle social and structural challenges too complex for any single country to resolve on its own. Two such projects are “Caring Communities” and “HARMONMISSIONS”, whose cooperation goals span the macro-region and operate across multiple governance levels.
These projects share a common ambition: improving quality of life in the Danube Region through collaborative governance, active stakeholder engagement, and community-oriented solutions.
“Caring Communities” aims to enhance the quality of life of care-dependent people by strengthening community-based care systems. The project consortium includes 25 partners from nine Danube Region countries, including organisations from Serbia as active project partners – the Republic Institute for Social Protection and the Network of Organisations for Children of Serbia (MODS). This project approach enables transnational knowledge exchange and the sharing of good practices in the field of care, including capacity-building for local stakeholders across the region.
“HARMONMISSIONS” has been designed as a response to global climate challenges. The project aims to harmonise governance frameworks for the implementation of EU missions in the area of climate change adaptation and climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. The main objective of the project is to create a platform that enables better cooperation and knowledge exchange among partners in the region. Among the partners is the Regional Center for Socio-Economic Development – Banat from Zrenjanin, demonstrating Serbia’s active and successful participation in these important regional activities.
Both projects have been included on the EUSDR (EU Strategy for the Danube Region) list as projects of strategic importance for 2025, further highlighting their broad relevance and impact on improving the quality of life and community resilience throughout the Danube Region.
Project hyperlinks:
https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/caring-communities/about-us
https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/harmonmissions/about-us
